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Warlock talents
=Warlock talents= Talent trees Affliction The Affliction tree gives a warlock more powerful curses and drains, better DoT ability, and in the end more powerful Shadow spells in general as well as a new way of recovering mana. There's also an additional DoT that heals the caster and a new curse. Look and Feel of a Mature Affliction Warlock Affliction Warlocks are the masters of killing an opponent at a distance while someone else does all the heavy lifting. With spells like Siphon Life and Drain Life, even your opponent helps you out a bit. Affliction warlocks are patient folk with some even taking a load off while their DoTs kill their target who is presently engaged with the Warlock's Void Walker. Some fights can take long enough to resolve, the Warlock's mana has regenerated by the time the enemy keel over dead. Strengths * Effiency: While it is possible to finish a fight quickly, you don't have to. Since most of your spells will either be instant cast or very close to it (Immolate is the only non-instant spell you need to cast with any frequency), you will spend a lot of time watching your DoTs slowly kill an opponent without actually doing any casting. This allows you to regain mana while you fight rather than in-between fights. * Strong Vs. Adds: Because a Warlock's Affliction spells are of the "fire and forget" variety, a second or third mob will directly multiply your DPS. While you have to worry about pulling aggro off of your pet in these cases, Fear will allow you to juggle adds rather than having them do anything inconvienient like hitting you. * Usually Have More: Affliction Warlocks are most effective when they take their time. This means that in a pinch you have a lot more where everything came from. If your pet is taking more damage than feels safe you can start spamming Shadowbolts. By the time your pet dies/loses aggro, the mob is either dead or is very close. Weaknesses * Vulnerable to Elites: If it can take out your pet quickly, you don't stand a chance. Heck, if it can take out your pet in any kind of short time you don't stand a chance. Luckily this doesn't always mean you die. It just means you probably won't be able to kill it at all without help, or a few more levels. * Vulnerable to Dispels: In PvP, if it can cure enemies of your DoTs it can usually do it far more efficiently than you can put them back on. In general, UI Mods like Decursive completely invalidate any kind of use an Affliction Warlock might have in PvP. * Vulnerable in PvP: Afflicton Warlocks don't kill fast. That means that if something with good burst damage like a Mage or a Rogue gets you in their sights, there isn't much you can do about it except die. Demonology The Demonology tree gives a warlock more powerful demons and conjured Stones, as well as more stamina and some buffs that take effect when the demon isn't present. It also increases the effectiveness of enslaved demons and endgame summons, and in the end there's a new way to make the warlock very hard to kill. Look and Feel of a Mature Demonology Warlock A Demonology Warlock will function better in conjunction with their Demon minion, produce more effective stones for themselves and party members, and are more likely to survive combat through damage reduction and higher stamina. Though not particularly devastating in PvP (outside of the simple Fear + Bolt technique employed by any Warlock) Instances and PvE situations will be easier. Strengths -Better Health, Fire and Spell stones. -More effective Demons, including higher damage, more mana, more HP, quicker speeds, and shorter cooldowns. -The Master Demonology effect, which, based on the current summoned Demon, can reduce incoming damage, reduce threat generation, increase shadow damage, or increase resistances. Weaknesses -Overall low burst damage, making PvP a sullen experience. -Higher HP is offset by standard DPS, meaning you will live longer but your life means less. -Will generaly suck at PvP against, say, a same level Warlock specced in Affliction. Destruction Destruction offers warlocks the opportunity to do truly horrendous damage to their foes, although it is mostly Fire damage. There are talents to increase the speed at which your pets attack here, as well as to improve your damage-dealing spells, their chances to get critical effects, and the damage done when critical effects occur. Look and Feel of a Mature Destruction Warlock The two words you must remember when thinking of Destruction Warlocks are: "Burst" and "Damage". Thats what Destruction Warlocks are good at. Actually, it's really all they're good at. Where an Affliction Warlock couldn't kill a Rat quickly if he needed to, high level Destruction Warlocks can take out non-elite enemies three levels above them in very short order. Strengths * Burst Damage: The Damage numbers near the end of the Destruction tree are somewhat misleading. While the damage on Conflagrate might look a little low, and you might think that sacrificing a couple of DoT ticks on an Immolate might be a waste with it not doing much damage anyway, you have to remember that the initial damage on both spells get significantly enhanced by talents before hand (Immolate gets increased by 30%!), and with Ruin when they crit, they crit hard. * At the End of the Day, You're Still a Warlock: If you take away a Rogue's weapons, there isn't much left of him besides Sap and some second rate DoTs. Take away a Destruction Warlock's fire damage, and he still has quite a bit to work with. Take him into Molten Core, and he can still throw around Shadow Bolts. Take away the Destruction tree, and they can still contribute to the raid with the single most versatile selection of curses in the game. Weaknesses * Can't Summon Water: Where an Affliction Warlock somewhat resembles a camel and can go for days without a drink, Destruction Warlocks suck down fluids like insert witty comment about drinking here. Your mana bar is evil and it hates you. Don't ever forget that, and you had better learn the tavernkeepers' on a first name basis. In fact, your Morning Glory Dew account will probably be putting your favorite tavernkeeper's kids through school. * They LOVE Fire!: Fire immunity is a terrible thing. Considering the majority of the damage you deal will be comming from your enhanced Immolate and Conflagrate spells (we're talking about Destruction Warlocks here, not SM/Ruin Warlocks), fire immunity will can cut the damage you deal in excess of 2000 points with those two spells alone. * Can't Effectively Use Pet: With the Destruction style of play, there's no way to effectively use your pet to manage aggro or really do anything other than add more damage. * Anything You Can Do...: If all you want to do is burst damage, a Mage is superior in every way. They have much higher damage output, much longer range, much better mana management, and much better escape abilities. =Popular builds= Some level-60 talent builds have become quite popular among warlocks. There's a tendency to describe talent builds with the names of their highest-tier talents, or by the numbers of points spent in each tree (30/0/21 means 30 points in Affliction, no points in Demonology, and 21 points in Destruction); the trees are listed in alphabetical order, which is the order in which they appear in the game. Also, there are usually many options available on the way to the top-tier talents; there can be many variations of these depending on each warlock's individual taste and style. SM/Ruin Until the revamp of the Demonology tree in the 1.6 patch, the SM/Ruin build was undisputedly the king in terms of DPS. (Whether DPS is the primary consideration is up to the individual warlock.) This build implies 5/5 points in Shadow Mastery, and 1/1 point in Ruin. This requires 30 points in Affliction and 21 points in Destruction, leaving no room for any Demonology talents at all. Talents such as Improved Corruption and Nightfall usually form part of the Affliction background, as well as Siphon Life, of course, since it's a prerequisite for Shadow Mastery. In Destruction, Bane and Shadowburn are favorites, and of course Devastation is a prerequisite for Ruin. The advantage of the SM/Ruin build is its high DPS. In a large fight, the warlock can quickly put Corruption on a number of enemies, which is highly likely to cause Nightfall to activate, probably several times. Dishing out instant Shadow Bolts that do extra damage (because of Shadow Mastery) are more likely to critically hit (because of Devastation) and do double damage when they do (because of Ruin) can make the warlock's DPS quite good, especially with Improved Shadow Bolt adding to subsequent Shadow damage. This does eat through mana quickly, though, so it may be good to put Siphon Life on a few of the enemies as well and use Life Tap (a reason to take Improved Life Tap) to convert the incoming health into mana for sustainability and quicker recovery. Basically, the Affliction talents Nightfall and Shadow Mastery synergize well with the Destruction talents; this is why this build is popular. The disadvantages are the sustainability and survivability problems, as well as having relatively weak pets. Warlocks don't have much in terms of defense, but what they do have centers primarily around talents in the Demonology tree, such as Demonic Embrace and Soul Link, as well as some of the Master Demonologist and Demonic Sacrifice effects, and this build contains none of them. Also, this build relies hugely on the warlock's own spells to do damage, which means that the warlock's mana is constantly in need of replenishment, although the build does provide means to handle this (Siphon Life, Improved Drain Life and Fel Concentration combined with Improved Life Tap to convert the drained health into mana). The build completely ignores the warlock's pet, so pets doesn't contribute much damagewise, although their abilities still have an effect even unimproved. Finally, a factor to consider with regards to this build is its aggro management ( or lack thereof ). In this area, SM/Ruin is about as bad as it gets. In addition to high overall damage, it also results in frequent and extremely high "bursts" when multiple Shadowbolts crit and Nightfalls proc in a short period of time. This is good in PvP, but extremely bad in PvE. 6000 or more damage dealt to the mob in the matter of 3 seconds - a number quite within reach of well-equipped SM/Ruin specced warlock - can be enough to pull aggro even from the best of tanks. This increasingly becomes a problem post-Molten Core because damage capabilities of Warlocks grow faster than aggro holding capabilities of Warriors, and consequences of pulling aggro become increasingly dire. At this stage Warlocks often respec from SM/Ruin either to MD/Ruin (see below) for Master Demonologist imp buff, or even to SM/DS build to avoid high crit numbers altogether. MD/Ruin Since the revamp of the Demonology talents with patch 1.6, several warlocks have tried putting 30 points into Demonology instead of Affliction to acquire the Master Demonologist talent instead of Shadow Mastery, while still spending 21 points in Destruction to acquire Ruin; some have found they like this build even more than SM/Ruin. Not only does the Succubus's MD buff add 10% to all damage the warlock causes, if the warlock uses Demonic Sacrifice on the Succubus, the 15% increase in Shadow damage is greater than the 10% increase from Shadow Mastery. The advantages of this build are the increased power and utility of your pets -- since such talents as Fel Intellect, Fel Stamina and Unholy Power improve every pet, while Improved Imp/Voidwalker/Succubus improve specific ones -- and great flexibility, as Master Demonologist and Demonic Sacrifice give a wide range of benefits to select from based on the situation. The radical change in specialization can be almost like respending your talent points, and all it costs is a Soul Shard. Also, Demonic Embrace gives you a large stamina boost, while Soul Link can split any damage you take with your demon (whose own health might be increased by Fel Stamina), giving you more survivability. For extra survivability, summon the Voidwalker (it has the greatest health, making it the most effective pet to use Soul Link on, and its MD benefit reduces all damage you take) and/or use Demonic Sacrifice on the Voidwalker (for constant healing). The disadvantages of this build are that you become flexible but not versatile -- you can radically change what you excel in just by summoning another demon, but of course only one pet can be out at any one time; you can never be simultaneously excellent at both offense and defense -- and that many of your talent points are effectively locked away and not in use if you don't have a pet out, or if your pet dies. Unless you're in a Battleground, you resurrect petless, which means that warlocks are more handicapped than other classes immediately after resurrection, and a Demonology-heavy build emphasizes this -- although it also mitigates it to some extent by providing quick and mana-cheap summons. Whereas Shadow Mastery synergizes well with the Destruction talents, the Succubus-dependent bonuses are the only Demonology talents that synergize this way, meaning that you don't get as much out of your Destruction points if you don't have your Succubus around. There are two more major disadvantages of MD/Ruin. In order to match the damage capabilities of SM/Ruin, MD/Ruin specced warlock has to use Succubus and can't keep any other pets up. This may be taken unfavorably by warlock's group members, because warlocks are liked in part for their Imps' Blood Pact buff ( +420 to +550 Stamina, depending on talents ). However, lack of Blood Pact is not a big problem for warlock himself, because stamina gained from 5-point Demonic Embrace talent usually exceeds the benefit of Blood Pact. MD/Ruin specced warlocks may also have problems in PvP combat against some classes, because they lack an important kiting spell - Curse of Exhaustion; being less able to keep enemies away, they have to rely on their increased stamina for their survival. Finally, a remarkable property of MD/Ruin build is that it's currently possible to resurrect a sacrificed pet ( using Jumper Cables or with healer's help ) and end up with stacked Demonic Sacrifice and Master Demonologist benefits. When this is performed with Succubus, bonuses add up to whopping +26.5% damage to shadow spells, making this build higher in damage than SM/Ruin. Note however that it is considered a bug and may be fixed in future patches. 7/21/21 This build is a variation of MD/Ruin, most things that can be said about MD/Ruin apply to 7/21/21 as well. In this build, instead of putting 30 points into Demonology, one spends only 21 points to get Demonic Sacrifice. 7 out of 9 saved points are put into Affliction in order to get 2/2 Improved Life Tap and at least 3/5 Improved Corruption. The remaining 2 points are "free" and can be spent on any talents. With Demonic Sacrifice but without Master Demonologist, 7/21/21 is an explicitly "petless" build. The philosophy behind 7/21/21 is that Life Tap is a crucial PvE spell that provides bulk of Warlock's mana during raids; Improved Life Tap increases the amount of mana gained by this spell by 20%, effectively increasing Warlock's mana pool, somewhat increasing damage per second during long encounters ( because Life Tap has to be cast less frequently ), and easing the burden on healers. Improved Corruption, on the other hand, is advantageous in PvP, because it provides Warlock with a non-curse instant-cast DoT. Heavy Destruction Basic Idea: as many points into the destruction tree as possible. The advantage of this build is a very high DPS and some very big critical hits. It is one of the best PvP focused builds available. Devastation, Improved Searing Pain, Ruin, and Emberstorm will mean very very big critical hits, and critical hits will be much more frequent when Devastation is working with Improved Searing Pain. Improved Immolate and Conflagrate will be your main tools for damage, and Shadowburn is your death strike when your oppoents health is in the red. Intensity makes your Rain of Fire and Hellfire abilities castable without interruption, which is frequent without the talent (Hellfire is very useful in BG's when 8 or 9 enemies can be attacked at one time, and you can sacrifice your self for the greater good, and you can soulstone once dead). There are talents that should be avoided in the destruction tree, however, those being Pyroclasm, Cataclysm, and Aftermath. Everything else is up to you. The two best PvP pets also get quite a buff with this build. Many people sink 1 point into Improved Firebolt and 3/3 in Improved Imp, providing more damage in less time (and a very powerful Blood Pact to boot). Improved Lash of Pain will really add to your Succubus's DPS, and will be cast almost constantly when she isn't busy seducing her targets (and she also manages to eat her mana in a few seconds). Both these abilities will make a human opponent put priority on killing your pet instead of you, giving you time for DoT's, Shadowbolts, and Conflag. Typically the only non-destruction talents taken are Improved Corruption, Improved Imp, Improved Life Tap, and Demonic Embrace. This build IS flaming temporal doom. The disadvantages: You eat mana. Life tap exists, but if you keep casting hellfire, you will run dry (you can still easily outlast a mage, however). This build also focuses on fire damage, and alot of mobs have high fire resistance, but the same can be said of any type of spell. Shadowbolt is going to take a long time to cast, since you dont have Nightfall, but it wont be that much of a problem if you aren't used to Shadow Trance already. This build also offers nothing for defense, and some abilities buffed in this build will drastically cut down on your time spent alive (Hellfire). It also lacks in PvE when compared to other Warlock builds (Dark Pact and Soul Link builds come to mind). This build also does not offer much until you are high enough in level to get Ruin, so people tend to respec into this after Level 35 (Which gives Improved Corruption in addition to Ruin) rather than sinking points into it right away. But, in the end, if you are playing on a PvP server, it wont get much better than this. See also: *Warlock talent calculator at the official site. *Warlock talent calculator at Thottbot.com *Warlock talent calculator at Panda Hideout. *Warlocktalent calculator at merciless-gilde.com. Category:Warlocks Category:Talents